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Assume v. Presume

Black Hole said:
If you describe one object as twice the size (or twice as big), I would (as common usage) expect that to refer to linear dimension unless otherwise qualified. Do others not agree?
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No, I don't agree.
The trouble with "size" or "big" or similar is that it depends. It doesn't necessarily convey which of length, width, height, area, volume any one person is referring to. This is probably why journalists and the masses use it as you can get away with misusing it without having to think about what you are saying or justify your reasoning. Nobody who really wants to compare x against y in a meaningful way would use either of the above mentioned terms.
 
gomezz said:
To its senses as the former technically refers...
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You could at least have put a comma in there. I had to read this about six times before I managed to parse it.
Two "and"s are ugly as well. I'd have split it into two sentences.
 
I enjoyed listening to an old Tim Minchin performance the other day where he was expressing that he had a problem with stockbrokers. Nothing against them or their job, just a grammatical objection. "You see, broke is the past tense of break so the er really has no place there. I don't call myself a sanger."

(Yes, I know he's wrong, as I'm sure he does - it's a joke!)
 
It would please me to be able to say that people that use airplane are a bit dim, but unfortunately I don't think this is the case, it's just that language moves on. It doesn't make it any easier to accept though
 
af123 said:
I enjoyed listening to an old Tim Minchin performance the other day where he was expressing that he had a problem with stockbrokers.
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How old is he, then?

(I'll go get me omnibus...)
 
Ezra Pound said:
It would please me to be able to say that people that use airplane are a bit dim, but unfortunately I don't think this is the case, it's just that language moves on. It doesn't make it any easier to accept though
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Do you have an autocar, or ride in a sharrabank? Or consult WikiPœdia? :p
 
Black Hole said:
If you describe one object as twice the size (or twice as big), I would (as common usage) expect that to refer to linear dimension unless otherwise qualified. Do others not agree?
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As in "This bottle of beer is twice as big as that bottle of beer?"
 
Yet more use of agenda to mean agendum today on the news. Dear me, I wonder what is happening to the world!

What next? Forums rather than fora?

I am turning into Charles Pooter!
 
Mike0001 said:
No but it was using agenda in its new-fangled singular collective sense, meaning agendum.

A single agendum was being described, not loads of them.
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I just had trouble thinking of a sentence that would require the singular (which I understand as a single "thing which has to be done")
 
af123 said:
I just had trouble thinking of a sentence that would require the singular (which I understand as a single "thing which has to be done")
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Following an agenda? Meaning, having a single aim or purpose? Should be following an agendum.

My agendum is to point out such poor uses of agenda.
 
Fascinating fact: the plural of locum (tenens) is locum (tenentes) but we call them locums in the UK. Brilliant!
 
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